Slow Sunday Stitching.

Yesterday was about catching up on various jobs about the house. There were the usual household chores, changing the beds, doing the laundry and some cleaning. Sometimes I really love cleaning and yesterday the sky was overcast and threatening rain so cleaning seemed a good option but a bit pointless. Every time Scamp needed to go out, there were little dirty paw prints across the kitchen floor and for some reason Picasso has taken to going out with him so there were two sets. In the end I tried to catch them at the door and wipe their paws before letting them any further into the house. Oh the joy of having fur babies, OK I wouldn't be without them but could they just learn to wipe their feet! Next we needed to go to the hardware store as John wanted some bits for his DIY project and then into town as I needed to pick up some shampoo. The shampoo I'm using at the moment is making my hair very frizzy so I need one to calm the frizz down. I also needed to make bread and I'd promised I'd make a lemon drizzle cake. In the end the chores took longer than expected and the bread and lemon drizzle cake still need to be made. I'll do that once I've written this post.

John started his DIY project late in the afternoon and so I decided I would get my sewing machine set up and make a start on the quilting. I hadn't decided what I wanted to do on the patterned rows but I was going to straight line quilt the blue rows. That took a fair mount of time but as I was finishing the lines I decided I wanted to quilt between each different fabric piece using a zigzag stitch. I decided to try it on one row and I liked the effect.

I had completed one full row when I needed to pack up. This morning, when I got up, I set myself the challenge of completing the quilting. It took a bit of time but I'm very happy with the result. I used King Tut in the top and the bobbin. The thread is a blue variegated thread and looks quite pretty. It doesn't show up on the photo but it looks good in person. I decided to attach the binding before packing the machine away for the day. The binding went on very easily and the mitred join caused no trouble for once.

My slow stitching this evening will be to start attaching the back of the binding. It shouldn't take too long as the quilt is only 33 by 40 inches. I'll use the same thread for sewing on the binding.

A project that I want to get finished in the next year is the grandmother's garden quilt. This is now my oldest UFO and I'd love to have it finished. This is all handstitched and originally I planned to hand quilt it once I'd finished the top. I'm not sure that will happen. I've added some more of the white round since I took this photo and it is getting quite big. I need to make the bread I didn't make yesterday and then I can work out how many more rounds are needed before I start to square it up. I can then work out how many 'flower' blocks that needs and try to set myself the challenge of completing so many every month.

Once the baby quilt is finished and sent off to its new owner I have a small project I want to start. Since I still have the Austen Family Album quilt that I'm currently quilting I don't want another large project at the moment. Well unless one comes along that just has to be made.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching link up. Friends have told me I'm not allowed to watch the football tonight as England will lose if I do. I might have to see if I've got a good murder mystery to watch while stitch the binding. I'm hoping to finish the binding by Tuesday.

Take care.

Lyndsey